Today, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) released a new analysis of Illinois S. 1565, a bill introduced by Sen. Kimberly Lightford, which raises the state minimum wage and eliminates the separate rate for employees who earn tip income. The wage for tipped employees would rise from $4.95 to $8.90 an hour in the first year of this proposal—a nearly 80 percent increase.

Economists William Even of Miami University and David Macpherson of Trinity University estimate that eliminating the Illinois tipped wage rate would result in the loss of more than 20,200 full-time-equivalent tipped jobs in the Illinois restaurant industry.